Page:PracticalCommentaryOnHolyScripture.djvu/524

 debts, as  we  also  forgive  our  debtors. And lead  us  not  into temptation. But deliver  us  from  evil. Amen.”

The necessity  of  Prayer. God  does  not  require  our  prayers  to know  what  we  want,  for  He  is  Omniscient,  and  knows  our  needs  better than we  do  ourselves. But they  are  necessary  for  us,  to  turn  our  hearts from the  things  of  this  world,  and  draw  us  heavenward  by  a humble sense of  our  nothingness  and  by  a longing  for  the  gifts  of  God.

Long prayers. Is  it  not  right  then  that  we  should  make  long prayers? Did not  our  Lord  spend  whole  nights  in  prayer? And did not  St. Paul, after his  conversion, pass  three  days  praying? (chapter LXXXVIII.)  Our  Lord  does  not  object  to  the  long  duration of our  prayers,  but  to  empty  forms,  useless  repetition  of  words,  and mere lip-service  in  prayer,  wherein  the  heart  takes  no  part. In another place He  expressly  says  that  men  ought  always  to  pray  and  not  to faint  (Luke  18,  i),  and  St.  Paul  exhorts  us  to  “pray  without  ceasing” (i Thess.  5,  17).

The Lord's  Prayer. Our  Lord  has  given  us  the  ‘Our  Father’  as a model  prayer,  and  has  expressly  commanded  us  to  use  it. It is  the most excellent  and  comprehensive  of  prayers:  and  in  it  we  pray  for all that  is  best,  and  for  deliverance  from  evil. But, let  it  be  remarked, the good  things  we  ask  for  are  spiritual,  and  the  deliverance  we  pray for is  from  spiritual  evils. We pray  for  both  a temporal  and  a spiritual benefit only  in  the  fourth  petition,  when  we  ask  for  the  daily  necessaries of life. This ought  to  teach  us  to  pray  chiefly  for  spiritual  blessings, such as  grace,  pardon,  virtue  &amp;c.; and  not  only  for  such  temporal benefits as  health,  a good  harvest  &amp;c.

“Lay not  up  to  yourselves  treasures  on  earth,  where  the rust and  moth  consume,  and  where  thieves  break  through  and steal. But lay  up  to  yourselves  treasures  in  heaven,  where neither the  rust  nor  moth  doth  consume,  and  where  thieves  do